


spin the threads of fate, endless smoke

by vhscassette



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Loss, M/M, Pining, mostly just a lot of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:34:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vhscassette/pseuds/vhscassette
Summary: yami let his partner fall into the uncaring wheel of the orichalcos.
Relationships: Mutou Yuugi/Yami Yuugi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	spin the threads of fate, endless smoke

The train rattled endlessly as Yami sat in between the cars, chest hollow and weighted as if the world's bluntest metal had found permanent residence in the crevices of his ribs. His stomach was in a permanent state of horrid twist, a fever that had taken hold of him since the teal glitters of the Orichalcos had taken his partner.

The Orichalcos had taken his partner.

It was all his fault.

Yugi was as good as dead.

He killed him.

Yami weakly curled up further into himself, trying not to scream or dry heave like he had a mere ten minutes ago in the train bathroom. 

*  
  


"What's wrong, Yugi?"

Yugi was currently lying on his bed, his deck of cards sprawled on the desk nearby. His partner's eyes were smudged with a fade of green. Yami would have to help him with that at some point. ".. I, uh.. It's not really that important, Spirit," Yugi said quietly, turning to the side and closing his eyes. Yami knew better, though, than to take the words at closest face value; his heart was heavy with a pain he could feel like shadows on a lake, but not an ailment that was deteriorating his human body.

Yami floated closer, sitting by him on the bed- or, at least, how he _would,_ could he physically feel it. ".. Please, Yugi. Tell me what's wrong with you. Your soul is hurting, and even I can feel it from within the puzzle."

Yugi's closed eyes hardened slightly before he sighed, a light, tired smile lining his lips. "Of course you could feel it. You're _part_ of me," he said quietly, Yami's eyebrows furrowing. 

"Why are you dancing around your words?"

Yugi sighs again, the sadness now more audible as he rolled onto his back once more. "It's something that's inevitable. There's no point talking about it because it's _going_ to happen. It just.. it still _hurts."_

Yami scooted closer. "I'm always here to talk with you. You know that."

Yugi closed his eyes, smiling a watery, breaking little thing before his eyes opened again, his eyes reflecting the faint nightlight in the corner of his bedroom. "I know you are. That's why this hurts so bad."

".. Hurts? I'm not _hurting_ you, Yugi, am I?-"

Yugi wiped at his eyes. "You're going to leave me one day."

Yami blinked. ".. What? Of _course_ I won't, Yugi, you have my puzzle-"

"No. Like-.. The whole.. The whole _reason_ you're here with me is so we can find your true self again. You're.. You're gonna _have_ to go away someday soon, or else you'll be suffering here in the human world for eternity- even _after_ we all die," Yugi sniffled, his voice slowly breaking with tears. ".. You're.. one of my best friends, and you're gonna go away soon, _permanently,_ until my world ends- and I don't even think there'd be an afterlife I could see you in anyway."

Yami's heart squeezed painfully in his dead, breathless chest. ".. Yugi, you shouldn't have kept this pain inside of you for so long."

Yugi cried silently, wiping harder and harder at his streaming eyes until he sobbed, his sniffling wavering in the silence of his bedroom.

Yami leaned in and hugged his partner, wishing to Anubis that he could have his human flesh, human skin, to hold him with and to reassure him. "Please don't cry, Yugi. You've done more than any other living being could _ever_ do for a dead, forgotten soul like myself. You shouldn't have to shoulder this pain. _I_ should be crying in my own guilt for _you-_ you, who gave up so much of yourself for my sake."

Yugi loved, and he loved _relentlessly._

Much, much more worthy of life than him. He once again thanked the blessings of He, Ra, that Yugi even existed on this Earth with the brightness that he did. 

Yugi giggled tearily, sniffling harshly before crying again. "You're-.. Spirit, you've cared about _me_ for no good reason other than I'm _helping_ you- and you've _held_ me, you've protected my _friends,_ you've become-.. you've become my _friend,_ Yami. I'm so happy I was able to share myself with you. I'm just.. sad it has to end."

Yami's eyebrows furrowed, sighing softly as he floated beside his partner, levitating onto the bed before hugging him again. 

Truthfully, he didn't want to leave his partner, either. Being alive with his partner was truly a second chance at living, a second chance to see the holy sun he had basked in thousands of years ago in a country thousands of miles away. At first, just breathing _air_ had been an odd blessing enough, but then he truly saw the world in which his partner lived in.

Yugi was loved.

He loved, was loved, and gave love carelessly to those who needed it and even those who didn't deserve it. The endless olive trees of Yugi's hands stretched out to all- even _he,_ who mercilessly had taken control of his body without asking to destroy those who hurt him or his friends.

Yami wished once more that he was human, if only to hug his partner. He tried to ignore the tear in his heart when thinking of his words. ".. One day, our times together may end. Whether that be tomorrow or eighty years from now, our times may end. However-.."

Yugi sniffled, rubbing his eyes to look at his partner, his partner's body half visible like a translucent vellum in the dark of his room. 

".. However our time is spent, I promise you, Yugi, that it will not be the last time we meet. I _promise_ you."

Yugi's eyes, even as faded purple-blue in the dark as they were, seemed hesitant to believe him. ".. how could you _promise_ that?"

Yami looked away in uncertainty but kept up his gaze with his partner, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. "I may not know how, and I may not know _when,_ but.. I will swim back through the reeds of Aaru onwards if only to see you smile for one more moment- and _this_ I will swear to you."

Yugi's eyes widened, cheeks reddening before giggling, pushing the nonexistent form of the Pharaoh away. "You talk too much. What kind of fuzzy stuff was that?"

Yami felt somewhat irked at that, rolling to his back and crossing a defiant leg. "How _dare_ you muddle the truths of my heart? Scripters of my time would fall to their _knees_ to hear such promises from the lips of royalty!" 

Yugi laughed, laying on his back as well and smiling as he faced the ceiling. "Yeah? Well, I _do_ appreciate the very sweet words. It certainly is very.. in-depth. Dated, even."

"I'll show _you_ 'dated'.." Yami grumbled, Yugi still snickering, shaking his head.

*

The train still rocked.

Yami felt the eyes of Ma'at boring into the depths of him.

His promises to his only partner, the one whom he would plead to the gods to spin the threads of time longer only for him, were broken, and _he_ had snipped the thread of his own accord.

_He_ did this to him.

He sobbed in shame.

**Author's Note:**

> i completely forgot my biology exam while writing this yall better enjoy it


End file.
